Pierre Carles Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Pierre Carles
Directing
Biography
Pierre Carles was born in 1962 in Gironde. He spent part of his childhood and adolescence in Chile and Colombia with his mother, a teacher in French schools. He returned to France in the late 1970s and studied socio-cultural animation, then journalism. He worked in television from 1988, first as a news cameraman for France 3 Régions, then as a columnist or author of humorous subjects in variety shows (TF1, France 2, Canal +, M6). From 1993, he made short documentaries for the Belgian-French show Strip-tease (France 3) and for the magazine Brut (ARTE). In 1998, he created a production company in Montpellier, with around ten audiovisual and cinema workers involved in the production of his first feature film, Pas vu pas pris, including producer Annie Gonzalez. From 1998 to 2020, he directed or co-directed around ten feature-length documentaries for the cinema, which deal with media criticism (Pas vu pas pris, 1998; Enfin pris?, 2002; Fin de concession, 2010; Les Ânes ont soif, 2004), the questioning of wage labor and the possibility of living differently (Attention danger travail, 2003; Volem rien foutre al païs, 2007), armed struggle (Ni vieux, ni traîtres, 2006)... He is also the author of filmed portraits of singular personalities such as Professor Choron (Choron dernière, 2008, with Éric Martin) or Pierre Bourdieu, whom he followed for three years to produce La sociologie est un sport de combat (2001). Through the exchanges of the great researcher with colleagues, journalists or activists, the profound nature of sociological practice and its critical potential are expressed.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Aaltra
In this pitch black comedy the rivalry between two neighbors escalates into an all out war. Through a maintenance error on a tractor they both end up, paralyzed, in a wheelchair. It seems they are doomed to stay together. They no longer focus their rage on each other but on the manufacturer of the tractor, in Helsinki. So get ready for a hilarious wheelchair road movie.
Volem rien foutre al païs
In this economic war, promised to us many years ago and which advances like bulldozer, does there still exist a surge of imagination offering resistance ? Ordered to choose between the breadcrumbs of precarious employment and the meager charity still offered by the system, some abandon the society of consumption to claim back their lives. “Neither exploitation nor handouts!” many of them exclaim. They’ve chosen another path, that of autonomy, of consciously choosing to undertake certain activities, and of uniting together with other like-minded people.
Enfin pris ?
Pierre Carles, the dispenser of justice seen in “Pas vu, pas pris,” is back in the saddle. After attacking French television star reporters, his new target is television critics as represented by Daniel Schneidermann, host of the "Arrêt sur images" show. “Enfin pris ?” analyzes censure at work in television. It is also a thought-provoking look at how power changes people and the intimate forces between ambition and loyalty. A cruel, biting comedy from which no one really comes out unscathed.
Nino (Une adolescence imaginaire de Nino Ferrer)
Nino is 16, the vacation is starting and his heart is torn between Natacha, a beautiful girl who is an actress both in the theater and in life, and the delightful Nathalie, whom he's known all his life. She refuses to let the "man of her life" drift away from her as inexorably as his childhood did...
Fin de concession
Pierre Carles questions the privatization of the leading French televisions channel : is it not scandalous that the TFI-Bouygues concession has been automatically renewed since 1987 ? Taking up the anti-television fight he initiated with "Pas vu Pas pris", his first film, he confronts the people responsible for the news who have always avoided tackling this taboo subject. But the investigation does not go as planned : the old dinosaurs and young guardians now how to handle this media critic. To find his "fighting spirit" again, Carles calls to arms his friends and changes methods : Henceforth, no more concessions !
Les Ânes ont soif
The french mainstream media ignored the last visit in Paris of the leftist Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. It's however this small country of Latin America, Equator, that serves as a model for Greek activists who are taking part in Syriza party or for non-orthodox economists from the spanish movement Podemos in order to solve the issue concerning the public debt. The Correa government declared a part of this debt « illegitimate » to implement public investment, and social inequalities reduction policies.
Neither Old Nor Traitors
Pierre Carles and Georges Minangoy go to meet former French and Catalan partisans engaged in the anti-Franco anarchist struggle of the 1970s.
Sociology Is a Martial Art
"I often say sociology is a martial art, a means of self-defence. Basically, you use it to defend yourself, without having the right to use it for unfair attacks." (Pierre Bourdieu) The world has witnesses who speak out loud what others keep to themselves. They are neither gurus, nor masters, but those who consider that the city and the world can be thought out. The sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu is one such witness." Over a three- year period, Pierre Carles' camera followed him through different situations: a short conversation with Günter Grass, a lively conference with the inhabitants of a working-class suburb, his relations with his students and colleagues and his plea that sociology be part of the life of the city. His thinking has a sort of familiarity, which means it is always within our reach. It is the thinking of a French intellectual who has chosen to think his times.
L'affaire Abdallah
The Lebanese activist Georges Abdallah was imprisoned in France for nearly 41 years. This pro-Palestinian communist resistance fighter was wrongly labeled a “terrorist”. An incredible fake news story and intense pressure exerted by the United States on France were at the origin of this extraordinary length of detention. At 74 years old, he managed to leave prison standing tall, his political convictions intact.
Production
Juppé, forcément...
Attention danger travail
With the energy of the dying, those in power apply themselves to reasserting the value of work – with force, if need be. But more and more workers have understood that, to truly value their work, they have to do without it. They also have to get rid of the society of consumption that goes along with it. It may not be easy, but it is certainly amusing. We present a panorama of a mass desertion destined to spread.
Le Rond-Point de la colère
The roundabout in Aimargues is one of the first emblematic places of the Yellow Vests’ movement, the symbol of an outlier France. The story of this mobilisation is told through nothing more than the images they shot with their mobile phones.
On a mal à la dette
Sociology Is a Martial Art
"I often say sociology is a martial art, a means of self-defence. Basically, you use it to defend yourself, without having the right to use it for unfair attacks." (Pierre Bourdieu) The world has witnesses who speak out loud what others keep to themselves. They are neither gurus, nor masters, but those who consider that the city and the world can be thought out. The sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu is one such witness." Over a three- year period, Pierre Carles' camera followed him through different situations: a short conversation with Günter Grass, a lively conference with the inhabitants of a working-class suburb, his relations with his students and colleagues and his plea that sociology be part of the life of the city. His thinking has a sort of familiarity, which means it is always within our reach. It is the thinking of a French intellectual who has chosen to think his times.
Volem rien foutre al païs
In this economic war, promised to us many years ago and which advances like bulldozer, does there still exist a surge of imagination offering resistance ? Ordered to choose between the breadcrumbs of precarious employment and the meager charity still offered by the system, some abandon the society of consumption to claim back their lives. “Neither exploitation nor handouts!” many of them exclaim. They’ve chosen another path, that of autonomy, of consciously choosing to undertake certain activities, and of uniting together with other like-minded people.
Volem rien foutre al païs
In this economic war, promised to us many years ago and which advances like bulldozer, does there still exist a surge of imagination offering resistance ? Ordered to choose between the breadcrumbs of precarious employment and the meager charity still offered by the system, some abandon the society of consumption to claim back their lives. “Neither exploitation nor handouts!” many of them exclaim. They’ve chosen another path, that of autonomy, of consciously choosing to undertake certain activities, and of uniting together with other like-minded people.
Choron dernière
Georges Bernier, alias Professor Choron, died January 10, 2005. He was 75 years old. The few death notices that appeared in the French press mainly focused on the scatological nature of his humor, or on the good man's provocative side. No one recalled the essential, which was that with his passing not only had one of the great proprietors of the French press disappeared, but he'd taken with him an artist in his own right, quite unique in his own way : Professor Choron.
Choron dernière
Georges Bernier, alias Professor Choron, died January 10, 2005. He was 75 years old. The few death notices that appeared in the French press mainly focused on the scatological nature of his humor, or on the good man's provocative side. No one recalled the essential, which was that with his passing not only had one of the great proprietors of the French press disappeared, but he'd taken with him an artist in his own right, quite unique in his own way : Professor Choron.
Pas vu, pas pris
"Pas vu, pas pris" starts with a subject filmed 2 years ago ; ordered then forbidden to broadcasting by Canal + : it was "Pas vu à la télé". Bernard Benyamin, Henri de Virieux, Patrick de Carolis, Anne Sinclair, Charles Villeneuve (amongst others) appear before the candid camera of Pierre Carles, for once subjected to an investigation that concerns their profession. After proclaiming that there is no taboo subject on television, they discover a pirate document showing Étienne Moujeotte and François Léotard in a business discussion about the destinies of TF1. Question asked : would they have agreed to broadcast this document and if not, why not ? The investigation itself is objectively searching : anything can be said on TV except one thing, the more or less close collusion of journalists and the political powers. Pierre Carles gives us a sharp reflection on the scope of this "fourth power" that the media have become, and on the compromises of those who are its masters.
Gallery
